Days 44 & 45.. not quite the end of the Summer! Couple of hours to go! #45daysofsummer

Well I'm not quite finished as there is still one more evening left of the summer! And I've not yet posted about yesterday either! So here goes..
Yesterday will be summed up in more photos than words (but a picture paints a thousand words though, right?!) and today's events as well as an overall (short!) summary of my entire summer follows at the bottom..

Laura gave me a brief but detailed tour of Bilbao in around 2 hours! I decided that if I would live anywhere in Spain (although of course I haven't been to every place in Spain) I would live in Bilbao. I loved it there! The atmosphere, the buildings, the river. Everything. We started our tour at what I think is the Old Square.

And walked round to the New Square (which didn't look that new to be fair, but was wonderful and was lined with cafés and bars and later on there was live music here!)

The library was rather modest and hidden, I felt. But had a grand door that was worth a snap.

A tiny little stage for the City Orchestra.

Live music in the street! This was on one of the main streets in the city, and had lots of shops and gorgeous little pastelerías (cake shops).

We reached the Guggenheim Museum! Selfie necessary.

A giant puppy made from flowers. Why not?

The Spider in the distance... Can you see the bride and groom in the distance having their wedding photos with said spider? Weird.

And the exterior of the museum was enough to look at without having to go in! 

The spider...! Crazy. Weird. Bride and groom finished and moved on to some other unusual spot for the rest of their shoot.

View down the river.

Arty bridge.

We went for a quick bite to eat in a gorgeous little Tapas bar in the New Square.

 

There was sooo much to choose from!

 Really, so much!! But the kind Spanish waiters helped us decide what to have and poured my mosto (grape juice) for me in a wine glass with ice, an orange slice and an olive on a stick. Wonderful.

Basketball World Cup fever - this year it is held in Bilbao!

There were loads of people milling around and taking part in all the activities in the streets.

We got free balloons :) yay!

And then, after a spot of lunch, and really all to quickly, I caught the bus to the airport.. Where my case was 26kg instead of 23kg and I had to get rid of some stuff and move some things around in a fluster as the queue for the Vueling desk was huge and out the door of the airport! After misunderstandings about hand luggage and being sad that my last proper Spanish conversation was a total muddle, all was well in the end and I reminded myself of my competent and lengthy conversation with Juanma the previous day, and my entire time with Laura which was almost totally in Spanish!! I landed back in London last night where mom and dad met me to take me home! Phew! (We did get lost in the countryside looking for a pub to eat dinner in, but alas gave up and ended up having pizza in Oxford services.) Home and bed. Yes.

Today, on my last official day of my Summer, I had a well-needed lie in, before heading to church at Zion. It didn't occur to me at the time, but thinking about it now, it was very nice to be sat in an English service, to be able to understand everything without my brain working on over time to try and translate. And how good to worship, and let God revive and refresh me. And don't get me wrong, I'm still tired and I'll be hitting the ground running as I start back at work tomorrow but I am so excited about what He is doing in my life at the moment and how clearly I can hear Him speaking to me, challenging me, encouraging and inspiring me. I hope and pray that in the busyness of this new season, I will still be able to hear Him and make time do so. 

This afternoon, we celebrated with some close family friends of ours. Two birthdays and three wedding anniversaries in these past couple of weeks! How exciting to be able to celebrate 55, 52 and 25 years of marriage with those couples, in a world when so often marriages have broken down. What a blessing to share with them in their celebrations today :)

And finally tonight, a brief but detailed and very exciting meeting about the future plans at church and about where God is leading us as a community in terms of our building plans!! 

Sadly no time for Grey's Anatomy tonight (soon I hope!) because the last 1.5 hours of this summer, I intend to be sleeping in order to be up for an early start tomorrow!

But what an incredible Summer it has been. Of adventure and challenge. Of learning and growing. Of new places, new people and new opportunities.

And what an incredible God I serve, who takes away, but who also gives in abundance. Who mends and restores what is broken and lost (and is continuing to do so). Who I don't always understand but who I am learning to trust more and more. Who makes my paths straight. Who sings over me and whispers words of love and truth to me at the times when I most need to hear them. Who is faithful to His promises. Who has said 'yes' to much more than He has said 'no'. Who has given me so much more than a great Summer. He has given me hope. He has given me Jesus. He is all I need.

#45daysofsummer #blessed

Now, what's next?!

Day 40 - Museum of Chocolate. Educational and Tasty. #45daysofsummer

Two posts in one day is a record I think! But while I have the time, I'm taking the opportunity because I never know when the next chunk of free time long enough to write in will be!

Today, we didn't go to the water park because the sky was threatening rain, but also because some people wanted to go ahead with the original plan, to visit Astorga.

Got more time to read today as well (during siesta time.. Instead of sleeping! Ahh couldn't put the book down!) While walking back to the camp earlier, I remember the House Martins that I wanted to take a picture of. They have nests EVERYWHERE here. It's amazing! In the morning, just outside the windows of the top floor where us girls are sleeping, there are dozens of them flying around welcoming in the morning!! I will try and get a photo of them but today I only managed to get a photo of some of their nests and one little guy in the top right corner. 

I'm glad we ended up in Astorga this afternoon. I was there last weekend too (with Bianca and her family, to visit El Palacio de Gaudi and for the church plant there) but this time I was with Lluna, her parents and a couple of other families from the camp and saw lots more of the city.

First stop?

El Museo de Chocolate. (Which ticks off another activity in the Earls Summer Scrapbook! Go to a museum!)

Oh yes. It was tiny, but very interesting! We watched a video of how the chocolate there was made in the olden days, and then how it has been improved using machines but, although a fairly long process, it looked quite simple! And we got some free samples at the end too!

Lots of signs saying 'no tocar' (don't touch!) Wasn't sure if this was real chocolate or not..

The original process of how they made chocolate. (Toast / Roast the beans, then separate the parts with your hands, melt it on a hot rock, mix with sugar, mold in to the tablet shape, mark to make pieces, allow to set and wrap.) Simple, right?!

Then we took a wander through the city, past beautiful churches, Roman ruins, and gorgeous views of the surrounding areas.

Thought this was great! Chess!

In the summer, they have concerts in the square but we were there a bit too early for that. We were there in time for the 7 o' clock chime of the bell though - and the two little statues at the top move and chime the bells.

A lovely little catholic church but really busy with decor and painting at the front!

These Roman ruins were really interesting. They are apparently one of the best conserved / preserved (not sure which is correct there?) of a Roman house, with baths and mosaic floors. 

It was so nice spending time with Lluna and her family. She has four siblings, and they all get along and are so sweet! Her folks have made a real effort to involve me in things and make sure I understand what's going on at various points this week. I actually find their accents (they're from Barcelona) really easy to understand - it's one of the clearest accents and makes things some much easier in a conversation!! The learning process feels very easy :) I even been able to chat with them about England and places they should visit next time they go - they love London and have been quite a few times but want to branch out and visit other places!
People here have a lovely expression, 'tienes casa' - 'you have a home'. I know we say that in England too, but Mihaela and Lluna have both said that to me and how lovely it is to know that I have homes here in Spain! :)

Day 34 & 35, León Cathdral, Tapas and Romanian history. #45daysofsummer

We went for Tapas last night, because I said that's the one thing I'd like to do while I am here that I haven't managed to do yet! It was quite a different than what I expected. We all scrubbed up (well, the girls at least), and walked in to the city centre where they showed me the cathedral and told me stories about the history of it's construction.

Spectacular building! Shame it was too late to go inside as it was already closed when we're got there. 

Of course - cathedral selfie.

Actually not sure what this was but there were lots of hand prints so we found the one that our hands fit best.

So much detail!

El Topo is a little café / restaurant right outside the cathedral. A Topo is a 'mole' (the animal that lives underground). I think, from the story they told me, the legend is that the guy who build the cathedral found a giant mole that every night ate part of the cathedral or tried to break it down while it was being constructed. And the the skin of the mole is still inside the cathedral to this day? I think they could have been joking with me but that's apparently why that restaurant is there.

We didn't eat here, but not too far from the cathedral, we found 'my' bar haha.

Then, getting impacient with hunger, we began the hunt for a tapas bar. What I didn't realise is that they don't just go to one restaurant and order loads of plates to share.. They move from bar to bar and order drinks, and with the drinks you get a few free plates of tapas or pinchos. We ended up going to 5 different bars (not really like bars in England) and ordering little drinks like grape juice (mosto) and fizzy orange (butano) and getting sharing plates of tapas. Then after 10 minutes or so, moving on to the next place! It was such a good night - walking from place to place, getting to know some of the youth of the church and trying lots of different foods! It all felt so Spanish :) even the part in the final bar we ate in, when the waiter sent a waitress over to our table to ask for my number and I (politely as I could in my broken Spanish) said no and explained that I don't live here in Spain. When a different waiter came over to ask again for him, and to ask where I'm from, Betsy got impatient and firmly explained (slightly shouted? I'm not sure - can never tell whether their louder tone of voice is anger or just emphasis!) that we were really hungry and we would prefer him to stop asking for my number and take our order so we can eat. Haha! All very Spanish....!!!

On our way towards home before the final tapas stop. Another lovely building in León - they are some many beautiful places there. It's such a gorgeous city!

Today, Betsy, Bianca and I went round Adolfo's house for lunch - his mum invited us round to eat with them and with some of their family friends. It was a lovely afternoon and after eating we all sat round the table talking (me, listening mostly..), which is something that I have really enjoyed about the Spanish culture. After eating, they sit and chat for ages at the table and it's so chilled and relaxed - well animated and loud at the same time because that's in their nature, but I just like that!
Afterwards, anyway, we walked the dog and watched a movie (Year One, in Spanish..) before heading over to the church for the weekly prayer meeting. Admittedly, I didn't understand much from the meeting tonight - I think I was too tired. So I just read my bible for a while, and prayed for things I understood and simply gave over to God what I didn't understand. I had some good conversations after the service with people who introduced themselves to me because they didn't recognise me. I felt a lot more confident to speak with them because I'm finding that I am still understanding more and more and getting better at that. Frustratingly, the speaking part is still the most difficult part for me.

Betsy said to me tonight, "the only things we talk about are food and tiredness and whether you're happy!" Which I suppose is partly true (there is a running joke that whenever they ask me whether I am hungry / tired, I always answer 'un poco'!) But actually, it's hard when you spend a lot of time with people and have the same experiences as them throughout the day, to then talk together about those things, especially if you're with a lot of people who are fluent in the language and who talk about things as we go! However, with new people or with Bianca's family who I don't see much during the day, we have more to say to each other about the day, different things that have happened etc. But the other thing is that when there are more than a couple of people, the conversations just go so fast that I can just about keep up with what's being said and follow the conversation, but if I start to think about things to say or formulating speech in my head, I can't do that and keep up with understanding everything! I have realised that I can sit and understand pretty much all of a conversation (obviously, not every conversation - but after catching the context and general jist, I am able to follow pretty much the whole conversation!) but as soon as someone asks me a question, it fires a different part of my brain which then can't cope with listening, understanding, translating, formulating an answer and sending that to my mouth in a reasonable amount of time.. Ahh it's so hard!

But tonight on the way back from church, Mihaela and I had a conversation about our day and when we got home, she showed me a map of Romania that they have mounted on their wall. She is originally from Romania but they have lived here in Sspain for many years! She told me lots about different parts of the country, about her city and her family and friends but also about what it was like growing up as a Christian during the time of Communism there. And I was asking questions and active in the conversation, not simply listening. I found that I was hardly thinking about translating what she way saying, I was simply understanding immediately. So that was encouraging. Ooh I love seeing and feeling progress!

The map of Romania in 1938, that's up in their hall. 

Today

I'm not gonna write much coz I'm about to watch 'How I met your Mother' (thank you Freya and Dave Gilbert...) but wanted to share, very quickly, about the day I've had and the amount of things I managed to fit in to the last 16.5 hours of my life.

Here goes.

- 2 hour exam on New York. Wrote 2 essays. Finished first year of University. Boom.

- Lunch with Maddy. Discussed many important things, put the world to rights etc.etc. Ate lunch in Comus. YUM and cheap. Bonus.

- Practiced songs with James for the lovely Fran Clarke's wedding that's coming up in September. Starting to sound good (if I do say so myself)

- Found 45 minutes to sit and rest (thought that wasn't gonna happen today). Spent a pretty little time with God and read the end of Acts - don't know how I haven't managed to do that before today but actually love Acts. Paul is such a dude.

- Learnt to speak HTML. (although I'm not fluent and Shuker would be the first to remind me of this). But basic HTML then. Like, level I for beginners. I can change the font on the CU website now, OK? And made it pretty colours. That's basically all that matters, right? (p.s. thank you Gavin for teaching me, and Becca for humouring me. LOL)

- Feedback sesh with some of the Exec about the Christianity Explored course we've been running for the passed few weeks. Fed back (that's usually what happens at these meetings). Some good stuff learnt!

- An hours chill time with Miss Becca, mostly trying to decide what to wear and how to fix my hair for that evening. But lovely still. Also experienced Becca giving her first piece of fashion advice (what shoes I should wear with the outfit I eventually chose) - she made a very good decision.

- Spent the evening eating home-made curry and wonderful desserts at the Gilberts' with Becca, Abi, Nadine and Tamsin (as well as Freya and Dave!). Put the world to rights again. The conversation covered new music - the best way to combat the burn of a spicy curry - christian music - abi's amazing dress sense - Kendall Payne - rob bell - chapel ball - American Idol - American X-factor - Greenbelt - Glastonbury line-up - the student diet - Dave's awesome iPod playlist - the Harry Potter party - who wins: Matt Redman or Tim Hughes? - wedding dresses - weddings in general - hair styles (for chapel ball) - the girl out of Enchanted - Einaudi - who is Matt Damon (honestly, Nadine....) - How I met your mother - Fake eyelashes - Dying ones eyelashes (this bit freaked Becca out more than the wedding dress and hair styles convos) - etc.etc.etc.

- lovely bus journey back with the twins

- Home now and about to have my first ever experience of How I met your mother - I have high expectations now because I've been warned that it is very similar to Friends. But I have been persuaded that it is a successful friends-wannabe sort of sitcom and that I will like it and potentially love it.

Here goes.......

Post-it Note Promise

I should be in bed.

But since I'm not yet, i'll write a quick post :)

Just reflecting on my day (as one does, at half past midnight..) and I updated my facebook status to:

"today my day was beautiful, sunshiney, fun, long, tired, blessed, nerve-racking, exciting, filled with friends, surprising, God-given, emotional, busy, abundant, adventurous... all glory and thanks be to God :):)"

That just about sums it up.

Today has been filled with both a number of challenges and also many wonderful things. Things which I have thoroughly enjoyed and embraced and would do again in a heart beat, and things that could not be avoided but were necessary and will inevitably have caused me to grow, even though I would never choose them if given the option.

And therein lies one of the beauties of life.

The element of surprise!

Who (aside from God) knows what tomorrow is going to bring?

Every day I wake up and start my day with God, and I rarely know what's gonna come but I always know He's gonna be there with me.

And for that I praise Him.

For the past few months, I've had a post-it note that sits next to where my phone and keys live, and it reads:

"I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and rescue you." Isaiah 46:4

The honest truth is, with all that is going on right now, I should be a mess. And perhaps I am to some extent.

But I know full well, that I am not doing this in my own strength. If I was, I would have already given up and gone home (and would probably be in bed already).

But Father God has made a promise, that He will sustain me.
And He is doing exactly that.

2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

Here I am, boasting in my weakness. Knowing that most of this is a lot too big for me. And so I rejoice in the fact that Christ's power is made perfect in my weakness and He is quite happy to use me anyway, despite how little I am.

Are you feeling weak lately?

If so, rest in the fact that His power is made perfect through that very weakness.

His grace is sufficient.

Hallelujah!

Today was a Fairytale

Today I had the most productive day of my 2011 so far... (not quite a fairytale admittedly, but it's a catchy title..)

I'm not sure if this is something that will interest you - yes, you - hello there reader :)

And I'm also not a major fan of hanging all my emotional laundry our for everyone to read about... But when walking back from doing my actual laundry this evening (and thinking in facebook statuses as I so often and unfortunately do) I wanted to tell the world exactly how full and amazing my day had been.

And perhaps I'm boasting a little, but perhaps here I can also give the glory to God since I have asked almost every praying person I know to be praying for me recently because I have been having a shoddy few days.
However, my God is bigger than 'shoddy' days and too much work and not enough sleep / proper food, monthly hormones etc.etc.etc.

Yes He is.

And I'm more than certain He has been answering a lot of those prayers.

And so upon waking up today (and wanting, more than anything in the the world, to go straight back to sleep and hide from everything and everyone) I sat and pondered for a while and then began my day.

07.50 - 1st Alarm goes off. SNOOZE. (repeat this like 5 times, we're getting there.)

08.00 - iPod alarm goes off (brooke frazer on the ipod. good start!)

08.17 - Still in bed, but sitting up now at least. Up at last.

08.30 - Since I chose to sleep through my devotion time this morning (I know this isn't cool, I don't this most mornings) - I simply sat and read Psalm 46, and then a bit from Matthew 4 about Jesus beginning to preach.

08.45 - Shower, Dress, Make-Up, Hair (actually did my hair properly - blow dry, straighten and even a quiff!)

9.20 - Prayed, gave my day to God and basically begged for sustenance and that He would help me survive today.

09.30 - Meeting with the CU Vice President discussing CU things that need to be discussed. Also in this time, arranged the day/time of next meeting, and arranged coffee with a friend for next week!

10.30 - Keele Christian Group Leaders Meeting ('Power Breakfast') - 2 cups of coffee and 3 pieces of toast with jam. My day was currently getting better by the minute. Good talks about Chapel goings-on and networking with the other Christian Leaders on Campus (always good!). This also included a huge amount of laughter with Kai and Dion from Jesus Jam. Those guys practically made my morning.

12.00noon - Help clear up after breakfast meeting.

12.15 - Post room (still no post, although I've been expecting 2 letters for a while now...), bumped in to lisa who gave me a little pep-talk before my debate, sent about 100 texts (slight exaggeration) because apparently i got popular this morning (that's not the reason).

12.30 - Sat in Le Cafe frantically going over my debate notes and making little changes that I felt would make my argument that little bit better.

13.00 - The debate. Cloe went first. 15 minutes later, I took the stage (as it were), and argued against the motion that U.S. Immigration Laws should be more rigidly enforced. I think it went pretty well - and I have 3 reasons for this:

#1. My side of the debate lasted just short of 15minutes (criteria met).

#2. There weren't many questions for me after the debating period, and yet the ones that were asked, I was able to give informed answers too, both of which lead me to believe that I both researched and argued my corner pretty well.

#3. I came away from the class believing very strongly that U.S. Immigration laws shouldn't be more enforced.. When I actually don't think I agree with this.

14.00 - Walked home with Maddy (who I feel I haven't seen in AGES!). Pondered some more and chilled for half an hour.

14.30 - Made a Quorn sausage sandwich (verrry good.). Washed up (5days worth of washing up isn't great..). Phoned Mom! Booked train for the weekend SPO is coming to stay, printed some stuff. Did a bit of my NY Seminar prep for next week.

16.00 - Rooibos in my Sbux flask and off to mi Clase de español. Learned lots!!

17.00 - Practise with worship band for Sunday's TEN:15 service. Learned a new song. Taught some harmonies, stayed for a short while to appreciate the choir who came in to practise afterwards (actually what I imagine heaven to sound like... So beautiful).

18.30 - Walked home with Chemistry George and talked about a whole array of fun things.

18.45 - NY Seminar Questions (complete). Spanish Homework (almost complete).

19.45 - Natter with Lisa about stuff and life and marriage lol. David joined us. Conor joined us. Natter, natter... nice little catch up!

20.30 - Applied for Student Finance for next year. Put a potato in to bake. Facebooked a little. Ate custard creams. Phoned mom (again), phoned Rich (who flies out to Dubai next Thursday!!)

21.00 - Put Laundry on. Spanish Homework (complete). Ate tea (jacket potato with cheese, and roasted onions, tomato... and frozen grapes (sort of addicted to those at the moment..).

22.00 - (approximate time) Put Laundry in to dryer. Watched '#23 week babies' on BBC iPlayer. Unreal. Cried a little. Considered the positives of being a 'custard cream' (purely for Owen's benefit).

22.50 - Went to get Laundry. Folded every single article as soon as it came out the dryer (sad affects of OCD).

About 23.30 - started blogging and still here (at 00.21am), although I'm actually in the middle of putting my all my lovely clean clothes away.

Will probably finish now, get ready for bed and read some before sleeping..

But I suppose the reason I just wrote all that is because I wanted to acknowledge that even when things aren't going massively well, God is faithful to His promises when He says 'I am He who will sustain you', or that 'I am your refuge and strength' or when He encourages me to 'Be still and know that [He] is God.' - He actually does sustain, he does give strength to those who are weak and weary and He was in every detail of my day today. I had a positive, joyful, productive day, and I have lots of people to thank for it but mostly, God.

I think it's good to get things out my system and on to my blog so I don't forget.

I thank you God for good friends, for my education, for a family who love me and look out for me, for the privilege of the leadership roles you have put me in during this season, for food and shelter and more than enough of everything I could need or want.

Thank you for every blessing.

Thank you for today.